As I’ve said more than a few times in my ramblings, Steve, my husband, does not much care for eggplant so I always have to hide it under other flavors and textures. For a tasty side dish to serve along with a flank steak marinated in olive oil and rosemary, I combined the eggplant with zucchini and tomato to make a sort-of caponata. Thought I made enough to serve throughout the week, but our guests liked it so much there was nothing left to stretch out meals during the week. Here’s what I did:
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil plus more to taste
1 sweet onion, peeled and diced
1 head fresh green garlic, chopped (had just picked a bunch up at the greenmarket, but a couple of
cloves of garlic would work just as well)
Salt
2 small eggplant, trimmed and diced
2 large zucchini, trimmed and diced
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes with their juice
A handful of basil leaves
About 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Chili flakes as many or as few as you want – I tend to be heavy-handed
Ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until the onions have softened a bit. Stir in the eggplant and continue to cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes or until the eggplant has absorbed some of the oil and begun to soften. Add the zucchini and tomatoes along with the basil and oregano. Season with chile flakes and pepper, cover, and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and cook at a bare simmer for about an hour or until the vegetables are soft and the flavors are nicely blended. You may want to add more olive oil along the way; I like the fruitiness of it so often add more than I probably should.
Remove from the heat and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
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